It's not about working hard...it's about getting the job done.

Every since I was a child, the value of hard work has always been drilled into me, by parents, teachers, professors, mentors, supervisors, managers, even friends and peers. In fact, just look at your social media feeds...it doesn't matter which one. It's virtually a certainty that you won't have to scroll long to find a quote, a story, a photo, a meme, which extolls the importance of working hard.

What I'm saying is that hard work, by and in itself, isn't the complete story.

I've seen countless people work hard to achieve their dreams, but a lot of them never do reach them. I should know, I was in fact, one of them. In the workplace, I've known people who have worked hard for years, but save for getting a steady paycheck, were hardly able to achieve anything. I've known people spend many, many hours at work, much to the detriment of family and other social relationships, but never get any closer to attaining any set objectives...unless of course you count maintaining the status quo as an objective...which for some people it may very well be. I've heard people respond to criticisms of not making work goals with the statements along the likes of: "but we're doing everything we can" or "we're already putting many hours into it", but never getting the desired results.

Let me hit you with a kicker: It's not about working hard...it's about getting the job done. The two ideas aren't synonymous. Getting the job done doesn't always mean working hard. More often than not, it means working smart.

But how do you do that? How do you work smart? Working smart comes from being prepared...and this is where the hard work appropriately comes into play.

The ones who get the job done are almost never the ones who put the most work into it...they are the ones who know what to do. They know what to do because they are the ones who put in the most effort, those who worked the hardest into preparing for the job through getting the proper education, training or experience. Even if they did what's supposed to be done and it didn't work out, they still know what to do then. They're prepared for it.

That's why some people, even when faced with seemingly insurmountable problems, are able to solve them with what appears to the rest of us as very little effort. They put in the hard work in the preparation, not at the problem itself. They don't work the problem...they solve it...because they've already put in the hard work beforehand.

I could spend upwards of a day trying to change the oil in my car, but despite my best efforts, I would probably still botch it up. If I'd take my car to my mechanic for an oil change, he could probably do it in ten minutes without even breaking a sweat. That's because he has worked hard getting the education, training and experience to reach that point. He is thoroughly prepared for the job at hand.

Managers, kindly take note. Don't expect people to get results just because you say so. On your end, make sure your people are equipped to deal with the jobs you're asking them to do. If they're not, have practical expectations of what they can achieve, and don't take their failure to reach targets against them, if you know full well that they are ill-equipped to achieve them in the first place.

Occasionally managers may be fortunate enough to have a prodigy of sorts on their staff...someone who can seemingly get anything done even if it's outside their wheelhouse. Employees like these though, are few and far in between. The vast majority of us are, to be honest, numbingly average, and we need to be properly equipped to deal with whatever job is sent our way.

I wish more people would talk about the value of preparation, the returns of working smarter, the importance of meeting an objective, instead of just telling everyone blindly to work harder. Employees are not hamsters running in hamster wheels, running as fast as they can but getting nowhere, performing poorly when management never empowered them to be able to do the tasks at hand.

Getting a job done is fulfilling on so many levels, and if an employee is denied this, not because of his or her own fault but due to lack of management foresight, this can lead to job dissatisfaction, further loss of performance, and erode the confidence the employee has in the organization. Worse, he or she can be assigned the blame, creating an ever-worsening cycle of poor performance, indifference, and mutual distrust between management and the employees.

Yes. Hard work is indeed important, but know where to properly apply it. Hard work by itself, will not necessarily get the job done.